| PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Fiction |
| Sponsored by | PEN/Faulkner Foundation |
| Country | United States |
| Website | penfaulkner |
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living Americans, Green Card holders or permanent residents. [1] [2] The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Judges read citations for each of the finalists' works at the presentation ceremony in Washington, D.C. The organization claims it to be "the largest peer-juried award in the country." [1] The award was first given in 1981. [3]
Mary Lee Settle was one of the founders of the PEN/Faulkner Award following the controversy at the 1979 National Book Award, when PEN America voted for a boycott on the grounds that the award had become too commercial. [3] [4]
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Walter Abish | How German Is It | Winner |
| Shirley Hazzard | The Transit of Venus | Shortlist | |
| Walker Percy | The Second Coming | Shortlist | |
| Gilbert Sorrentino | Aberration of Starlight | Shortlist | |
| John Kennedy Toole | A Confederacy of Dunces | Shortlist | |
| 1982 | David Bradley | The Chaneysville Incident | Winner |
| Donald Barthelme | Sixty Stories | Shortlist | |
| Richard Bausch | Take Me Back | Shortlist | |
| Mark Helprin | Ellis Island and Other Stories | Shortlist | |
| Marilynne Robinson | Housekeeping | Shortlist | |
| Robert Stone | A Flag for Sunrise | Shortlist | |
| 1983 | Toby Olson | Seaview | Winner |
| Maureen Howard | Grace Abounding | Shortlist | |
| Bobbie Ann Mason | Shiloh and Other Stories | Shortlist | |
| George Steiner | The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. | Shortlist | |
| Anne Tyler | Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant | Shortlist | |
| William S. Wilson | Birthplace | Shortlist | |
| 1984 | John Edgar Wideman | Sent for You Yesterday | Winner |
| Ron Hansen | The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | Shortlist | |
| William Kennedy | Ironweed | Shortlist | |
| Jamaica Kincaid | At the Bottom of the River | Shortlist | |
| Bernard Malamud | The Stories | Shortlist | |
| Cynthia Ozick | The Cannibal Galaxy | Shortlist | |
| 1985 | Tobias Wolff | The Barracks Thief | Winner |
| Harriet Doerr | Stones for Ibarra | Shortlist | |
| Donald Hays | The Dixie Association | Shortlist | |
| David Leavitt | Family Dancing | Shortlist | |
| James Purdy | On Glory's Course | Shortlist | |
| 1986 | Peter Taylor | The Old Forest and Other Stories | Winner |
| William Gaddis | Carpenter's Gothic | Shortlist | |
| Larry McMurtry | Lonesome Dove | Shortlist | |
| Hugh Nissenson | The Tree of Life | Shortlist | |
| Helen Norris | The Christmas Wife: Stories | Shortlist | |
| Grace Paley | Later the Same Day | Shortlist | |
| 1987 | Richard Wiley | Soldiers in Hiding | Winner |
| Richard Ford | The Sportswriter | Shortlist | |
| Maureen Howard | Expensive Habits | Shortlist | |
| Charles R. Johnson | The Sorcerer's Apprentice | Shortlist | |
| Janet Kauffman | Collaborators | Shortlist | |
| 1988 | T. C. Boyle | World's End | Winner |
| Richard Bausch | Spirits, And Other Stories | Shortlist | |
| Alice McDermott | That Night | Shortlist | |
| Cynthia Ozick | The Messiah of Stockholm | Shortlist | |
| Lawrence Thornton | Imagining Argentina | Shortlist | |
| 1989 | James Salter | Dusk and Other Stories | Winner |
| Mary McGarry Morris | Vanished | Shortlist | |
| Thomas Savage | The Corner of Rife and Pacific | Shortlist | |
| Isaac Bashevis Singer | The Death of Methuselah and Other Stories | Shortlist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | E. L. Doctorow | Billy Bathgate | Winner | |
| Russell Banks | Affliction | Shortlist | ||
| Molly Gloss | The Jump-Off Creek | Shortlist | ||
| Josephine Jacobsen | On the Island: New and Selected Stories | Shortlist | ||
| Lynne Sharon Schwartz | Leaving Brooklyn | Shortlist | ||
| 1991 | John Edgar Wideman | Philadelphia Fire | Winner | |
| Paul Auster | The Music of Chance | Shortlist | ||
| Joanne Meschery | A Gentleman's Guide to the Frontier | Shortlist | ||
| Steven Millhauser | The Barnum Museum | Shortlist | ||
| Joanna Scott | Arrogance | Shortlist | ||
| 1992 | Don DeLillo | Mao II | Winner | |
| Stephen Dixon | Frog | Shortlist | ||
| Paul Gervais | Extraordinary People | Shortlist | ||
| Allan Gurganus | White People | Shortlist | ||
| 1993 | E. Annie Proulx | Postcards | Winner | |
| Francisco Goldman | The Long Night of White Chickens | Shortlist | ||
| Maureen Howard | Natural History | Shortlist | ||
| Robert Olen Butler | A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain | Shortlist | ||
| Sylvia Watanabe | Talking to the Dead | |||
| 1994 | Philip Roth | Operation Shylock | Winner | |
| Stanley Elkin | Van Gogh's Room at Arles | Shortlist | ||
| Dagoberto Gilb | The Magic of Blood | Shortlist | ||
| Fae Myenne Ng | Bone | Shortlist | ||
| Kate Wheeler | Not Where I Started From | Shortlist | ||
| 1995 | David Guterson | Snow Falling on Cedars | Winner | |
| Frederick Busch | The Children in the Woods | Shortlist | ||
| Joyce Carol Oates | What I Lived For | Shortlist | ||
| Ursula Hegi | Stones from the River | Shortlist | ||
| Joanna Scott | Various Antidotes | Shortlist | ||
| 1996 | Richard Ford | Independence Day | Winner | [7] |
| William H. Gass | The Tunnel | Shortlist | ||
| Claire Messud | When The World Was Steady | Shortlist | ||
| Madison Smartt Bell | All Souls' Rising | Shortlist | ||
| A. J. Verdelle | The Good Negress | Shortlist | ||
| 1997 | Gina Berriault | Women in Their Beds | Winner | |
| Daniel Akst | St. Burl's Obituary | Shortlist | ||
| Kathleen Cambor | The Book of Mercy | Shortlist | ||
| Ron Hansen | Atticus | Shortlist | ||
| Jamaica Kincaid | The Autobiography of My Mother | Shortlist | ||
| 1998 | Rafi Zabor | The Bear Comes Home | Winner | |
| Donald Antrim | The Hundred Brothers | Shortlist | ||
| Rilla Askew | The Mercy Seat | Shortlist | ||
| Mary Gaitskill | Because They Wanted To | Shortlist | ||
| Francisco Goldman | The Ordinary Seaman | Shortlist | ||
| 1999 | Michael Cunningham | The Hours | Winner | |
| Russell Banks | Cloudsplitter | Shortlist | ||
| Barbara Kingsolver | The Poisonwood Bible | Shortlist | ||
| Brian Morton | Starting Out in the Evening | Shortlist | ||
| Richard Selzer | The Doctor Stories | Shortlist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Ha Jin | Waiting | Winner | |
| Frederick Busch | The Night Inspector | Shortlist | ||
| Ken Kalfus | Pu-239 And Other Russian Fantasies | Shortlist | ||
| Elizabeth Strout | Amy and Isabelle | Shortlist | ||
| Lily Tuck | Siam, or the Woman Who Shot a Man | Shortlist | ||
| 2001 | Philip Roth | The Human Stain | Winner | |
| Michael Chabon | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay | Shortlist | ||
| Millicent Dillon | Harry Gold | Shortlist | ||
| Denis Johnson | The Name of the World | Shortlist | ||
| Mona Simpson | Off Keck Road | Shortlist | ||
| 2002 | Ann Patchett | Bel Canto | Winner | |
| Karen Joy Fowler | Sister Noon | Shortlist | ||
| Jonathan Franzen | The Corrections | Shortlist | ||
| Claire Messud | The Hunters | Shortlist | ||
| Manil Suri | The Death of Vishnu | Shortlist | ||
| 2003 | Sabina Murray | The Caprices | Winner | |
| Peter Cameron | The City of Your Final Destination | Shortlist | ||
| William Kennedy | Roscoe | Shortlist | ||
| Victor LaValle | The Ecstatic | Shortlist | ||
| Gilbert Sorrentino | Little Casino | Shortlist | ||
| 2004 | John Updike | The Early Stories: 1953-1975 | Winner | |
| Frederick Barthelme | Elroy Nights | Shortlist | ||
| ZZ Packer | Drinking Coffee Elsewhere | Shortlist | ||
| Caryl Phillips | A Distant Shore | Shortlist | ||
| Tobias Wolff | Old School | Shortlist | ||
| 2005 | Ha Jin | War Trash | Winner | |
| Jerome Charyn | The Green Lantern | Shortlist | ||
| Edwidge Danticat | The Dew Breaker | Shortlist | ||
| Marilynne Robinson | Gilead | Shortlist | ||
| Steve Yarbrough | Prisoners of War | Shortlist | ||
| 2006 | E. L. Doctorow | The March | Winner | |
| Karen Fisher | A Sudden Country | Shortlist | ||
| William Henry Lewis | I Got Somebody in Staunton | Shortlist | ||
| James Salter | Last Night | Shortlist | ||
| Bruce Wagner | The Chrysanthemum Palace | Shortlist | ||
| 2007 | Philip Roth | Everyman | Winner | [8] |
| Charles D'Ambrosio | The Dead Fish Museum | Shortlist | ||
| Deborah Eisenberg | Twilight of the Superheroes | Shortlist | ||
| Amy Hempel | The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel | Shortlist | ||
| Edward P. Jones | All Aunt Hagar's Children | Shortlist | ||
| 2008 | Kate Christensen | The Great Man | Winner | [9] |
| Annie Dillard | The Maytrees | Shortlist | ||
| David Leavitt | The Indian Clerk | Shortlist | ||
| T. M. McNally | The Gateway | Shortlist | ||
| Ron Rash | Chemistry and Other Stories | Shortlist | ||
| 2009 | Joseph O'Neill | Netherland | Winner | [10] |
| Sarah Shun-lien Bynum | Ms. Hempel Chronicles | Shortlist | ||
| Susan Choi | A Person of Interest | Shortlist | [11] | |
| Richard Price | Lush Life | Shortlist | ||
| Ron Rash | Serena | Shortlist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Chloe Aridjis | Sea Monsters | Winner | [34] |
| Yiyun Li | Where Reasons End | Shortlist | [35] | |
| Peter Rock | The Night Swimmers | Shortlist | ||
| Maurice Carlos Ruffin | We Cast a Shadow | Shortlist | ||
| Ocean Vuong | On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous | Shortlist | ||
| 2021 | Deesha Philyaw | The Secret Lives of Church Ladies | Winner | [36] [37] |
| Matthew Salesses | Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear | Shortlist | [38] | |
| Rufi Thorpe | The Knockout Queen | Shortlist | ||
| Robin Wasserman | Mother Daughter Widow Wife | Shortlist | ||
| Steve Wiegenstein | Scattered Lights | Shortlist | ||
| 2022 | Rabih Alameddine | The Wrong End of the Telescope | Winner | [39] [40] [41] [42] |
| Nawaaz Ahmed | Radiant Fugitives | Shortlist | [43] | |
| Carolyn Ferrell | Dear Miss Metropolitan | Shortlist | ||
| Imbolo Mbue | How Beautiful We Were | Shortlist | ||
| Carolina de Robertis | The President and the Frog | Shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Yiyun Li | The Book of Goose | Winner | [44] [45] |
| Jonathan Escoffery | If I Survive You | Shortlist | [44] | |
| Laura Warrell | Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm | Shortlist | ||
| Dionne Irving | The Islands | Shortlist | ||
| Kathryn Harlan | Fruiting Bodies: Stories | Shortlist | ||
| 2024 | Claire Jiménez | What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez | Winner | [46] |
| Jamel Brinkley | Witness | Shortlist | [44] | |
| Henry Hoke | Open Throat | Shortlist | ||
| Alice McDermott | Absolution | Shortlist | ||
| Colin Winnette | Users | Shortlist | ||
| 2025 | Garth Greenwell | Small Rain | Winner | [47] |
| Percival Everett | James | Shortlist | [48] | |
| Danzy Senna | Colored Television | Shortlist | ||
| Pemi Aguda | Ghostroots | Shortlist | ||
| Susan Muaddi Darraj | Behind You Is the Sea | Shortlist |